Is W3C sending me spam?

No. W3C is not a spammer.
W3C does not allow its servers to be used to send spam, and unsolicited bulk e-mail is strictly prohibited from our mailing lists.

There are two reasons you might think that W3C is sending
you spam, however.

1. You found "w3.org" in the source of a document or email

If you look at the source of many HTML documents (including HTML email), you are likely to
find some text that explains which version of HTML was used by the
author. Versions of HTML are defined by the W3C, and therefore HTML
documents contain a reference to the W3C, for example:

Many people see this text and conclude that W3C had something to do
with the creation of the document. All that this text means is that
the text was written in HTML, a language defined and
maintained by W3C. The text
does not imply that W3C had anything to do with the creation
of the document itself.

2. Somebody forged email to make it look like it was sent by W3C

Unfortunately, people at times forge email addresses.
Many W3C email addresses are very visible to the public, and
this makes them targets for forgery. Thus, you may receive
spam from a w3.org address, but this only means that the
address has been used to send a forged email.

I see something about W3C in the source code of a Web page. Does that mean W3C is responsible for the page?

I lost my password / Forgot my account login

What Domain Names are used by W3C?

w3.org. The two most common uses you will see are "www.w3.org"
and "lists.w3.org" (for our Mail archives).

If the domain name is something else, it's probably not related to
W3C. If you find "w3.org" in the content of the page, that is likely
just related to the fact that the page is HTML; see our
FAQ question on spam.

Can I search on the W3C Web site?

Where do I send comments about w3.org?

We encourage you to let us know by sending a message to site-comments@w3.org with the URI (that is, the Web address) of the page(s) in question. That is a publicly
archived mailing list.

If you prefer to send us comments that are not publicly visible, please use
web-human@w3.org

We prefer public feedback since the community often works together to resolve issues. However, some people do prefer that their comments not be made public (where, for instance, they can be indexed by search engines).

Can I have my email removed from a public list archive?

Why is W3C blocking my IP?

W3C is most likely blocking your IP because of excessive traffic;
often this is due to requesting the same resource from us repeatedly
(e.g. a DTD, Schema, Entity, or Namespace document.) We give extensive
caching directives and there really is no reason to request
the same resource over and over when it is not going to change.
Your XML library or utility probably has a means to use a XML catalog
and/or have a caching mechanism; please consult that documentation on
how to utilize such features. If there are no such options you should
contact the party responsible for the library or utility used. You may
also put a caching proxy between your application server and the
internet.

The W3C servers are slow to return DTDs. Is the delay intentional?

Yes. Due to various software systems
downloading DTDs from our site millions of times a day (despite
the caching directives of our servers), we have started to serve DTDs and schema (DTD, XSD, ENT, MOD, etc.)
from our site with an artificial delay. Our goals in doing so are
to bring more attention to our ongoing issues with excessive
DTD traffic, and to protect the stability and response time of
the rest of our site. We recommend HTTP caching or catalog files to improve performance.

Will W3C link to my product from w3.org?

Maybe. W3C does not endorse any particular software. However,
because it is useful to provide links to software that
implements a specification, we often link to multiple products
or services (thus: many, not one). At the bottom of each page
you will find contact information for the person responsible
for updating links on that page.

Do you have a list of all DTDs or Schemas available from W3C?

No. Each specification includes links to
useful resources (such as DTDs and schemas) for that specification. A search engine should also be helpful in finding a particular DTD or Schema.

Why is my browser trying to download a page instead of displaying it?

Your browser (or other tool) may not be configured to display
that type of content, either natively or with a helper application.

Is W3C Service X or Y down? (System Outages)

See the systems status page. If you experience a problem not listed there, please send email to site-comments@w3.org.